Stories tagged fire
Flowerpots in full flame
Courtesy GatheringZeroIn my continuing quest to keep the public informed about exploding household objects, I bring you the case of the exploding......FLOWERPOT house fire?! I’m sorry but of all the things that could explode, a flowerpot falls pretty low on my list of potential hazards. The St. Paul Fire Department investigator, James Novak, agrees, “It’s not like everybody has to worry that their house is going to burn down...halogen lights, smoking, candles and Pop-Tarts in a toaster--there are a lot of things higher on the priority list than a potted plant fire.” Nevertheless, the combination of fertilizer, heat and oxygen within the pot can lead to potentially unorthodox flower pot behavior. Consider yourselves warned. As for me, I think a conversation with my fern about fire safety is long overdue.
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Lighting a backfire
Courtesy LouAngeli2008
As fires continue to rage in the forests of California, I thought I would introduce you to some of the people trying to control them. Smokejumpers are the logical people to start with as they are usually the first on the ground.
Smokejumpers are the elite forces of the US forestry department. Many fires begin in locations inaccessible to the standard means of transportation (trucks, helicopters, or by foot). These firefighters arrive by plane and parachute into remote areas. Often their landing site is the top of a tree or a boulder field. Their kevlar suits provide some protection but their skill set includes tree climbing, practiced falling and general hardiness.
In the beginning, jumpers were required to be unmarried without dependents. They had to be a bit reckless to be able to agree to jump out of a plane into a fire area! Despite the inherent danger of jumping, there have been relatively few fatalities in their long history. Jumping began in the late 1930s as flight technology and airplanes became more sophisticated. During the war, many of the jumpers were conscientious objectors to WWII. In 1981 the first women were allowed into the program. Today there are 9 active bases in the West but they serve fires from Alaska to the North East.
The physical requirements... 7 pull ups, 25 push-ups, 45 sit-ups, and a 1.5 mile run completed in under 11 minutes---all done in one session with a 5 minute break between each activity. So, I am pretty much disqualified right off the bat with the pull ups and even if I were to manage, the running would definitely eliminate me. I view running as a self destructive behavior (who would put themselves through that? sorry El). You must also be mentally and emotionally stable--that is a requirement! A smokejumper’s pack often weighs upwards of 100 pounds...and you have no ride out, you must hike or hitchhike in (after landing) and out of the fire. To see a complete list of physical requirements (including height and weight) check out the West Yellowstone smokejumper website.
What they do : After landing and recovering their gear (which is dropped from the plane in (hopefully) a relatively similar location to where they land) the crew sets out towards the fire. They carry no water save for their thermoses. They control the fire by either creating a fireline/firebreak, a swath of land around the edge of the fire cleared of any brush or fuel that could feed the fire, or they light a backfire . Backfires act much like a fireline/firebreak in that they burn towards the oncoming fire. By doing so, they remove the fuel the fire needs to continue burning. Only if the jumpers are unable to contain the fire are reinforcements called to the scene. Jumpers direct helicopters to drop water on hot spots and systematically work their way through the burn site feeling the ground to make sure that there will be no flare-ups. They can leave when the fire is controlled or fresh firefighters take-over, often times many hours after they first jumped from the plane.
Be sure to check out the links below. Jumpers work from June-Oct so those of you looking for adventure with an extremely selective and tight-knit group, smokejumping could be for you.
http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/people/smokejumpers/
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/gallatin/fire/wyifc/main.htm
fireworks
Courtesy ®oberto Scientists are working to create more environmentally sensitive pyrotechnics . Their research may have far reaching applications. Many military missiles and flares share a similar chemical make-up to fireworks. By adjusting the formula, scientists hope to reduce the amount of perchlorate involved in each reaction.
ipods huddle for comfort after learning the fate of their siblings
Courtesy nic0As I was innocently searching for images of fire, I came across pictures of...an ipod!? I do not normally associate spontaneous combustion with devices that I use on a regular basis outside of perhaps my stove or car. Thus I would expect flames to appear when I turn on the stove burner, not when I charge my computer. The culprit appears to be lithium-ion batteries .
Lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous in today’s technology market. They are by far the most efficient and long lasting battery available. And for the most part, they are non-flame producing. The problem seems to be their sensitivity to heat. Most of us have experienced the warmth that a battery can produce. I have been known to use my old computer battery pack on sore muscles in a pinch. When the battery gets too warm it can become unstable and the normally separated positive and negative charges combine to create the exploding electronics phenomenon.
If you are concerned about unwanted domestic fireworks displays, you are not without recourse. Lithium-ion batteries have a relatively short life span (about 3 years) so check the manufactured on date on the package and do not save the batteries for a rainy day, use ‘em right away! Keep them out of hot cars and don’t set up shop on top of a radiator. But before you add a fire extinguisher as your next ipod accessory, remember the chances of your ipod jumping off its charger and igniting your carpet are relatively low. But hey, who can resist the headline Exploding Electronics? Its not only catchy but alliterative to boot.
To Burn or not to Burn...
in The Water Cycle, Weather and Climate, Interdependence of Life, and Forces of Nature
Scene from Watsonville fire in California
Courtesy alexthompsonThat is the question. Controlled burning is a technique where by intentional fires are set to clear forests of debris. Fires sparked by lighting have always been a part of the life cycle of forests. Though it seems counterintuitive, fire can actually be a very healthy thing. It clears the forest floor strengthening older trees by giving them more access to soil nutrients while also acting as a kind of natural recycling. Regular burning (burning that mimics what formerly naturally occurred in forests) can actually reduce the severity of fires such as the one burning in northern California.
Sounds great! But, what if you live near a forest scheduled to burn? Though it is called a “controlled burn” I would certainly be skittish about the combination of control and burn. Fires can be extremely dangerous, but scientists utilize many tools for tracking weather and wind patterns prior to burning. They have extensive topographical information that allows them to track the path of the fire. There are also many resources available for homeowners.
Do the risks of controlled burning outweigh the risk of uncontrollable wildfires? Ultimately nature has the power to override any hesitations I may have about whether I want a fire in my backyard. So I have to ask, what is my role in fire and forest ecology?
Northern and central California are beset by more than 800 wild fires. Last week, the state baked under four days of triple-digit heat, which dried out brushland in many areas. On Friday, severe lightning strikes set them to blaze. California brushland, called chaparral, naturally becomes very dry in the summer and burns easily. The burning is nature’s way of recycling dead plant material. It’s only when humans build houses and things that we don’t want burned that it becomes a problem.
Over half a million people are being evacuated from areas near several huge wildfires burning in southern California right now. It is amazing to look at the images of this area from NASA's Aqua satellite.
Double click to zoom in
This image comes from NASA's MODIS Rapid Response website. This site is always a good place to check for a bird's eye view on large scale natural disasters.
Fire damage: Authorities check through a heavily fire-damaged area of Greece. Hugh wildfires have swept through the southern portions of the country and officials belief they've been deliberately set.After nearly a week of burning at an out-of-control pace, two people have been apprehended as possibly being responsible for the starting of huge wildfires that have been burning in Greece.
More than 50 people are known dead from the fires that have raced across southern Greece. Now in the line of fire is the city of Olympia, the home of the Olympic Games. As of Tuesday afternoon, no historic sites were damaged, but fires were moving close to a museum and archaeological center.
Through the weekend, about 45 villages had to be evacuated due to fire threats. Summer is always a severe time for wildfires in Greece, but this summer has been especially bad, authorities report, with more than 3,000 blazes.
And law enforcement is especially concerned about this latest wave of fires. A 65-year-old man was arrested based on accounts from people in the area seeing him torching areas. Officials are also looking for more leads on a gas canister device connected to a cell phone that was found in one of the wildfire sites. Authorities believe the arson actions could be tied to the upcoming Greek elections in mid September.
Also apprehended was a 77-year-old woman who was cooking in her garden when the fire got out of control and spread. She’s being charged for criminal negligence.
Burning out: The forest fires of today lead to the forests of tomorrow. The heat and pressure of the fire explodes cones filled with seeds that start the growth of a new forest days after the fire has stopped. (Photo from the US Department of the Interior)The recent forest fires in the northern Minnesota have scorched a huge chunk of the Superior National Forest. But they’re also the beginning of the next generation of huge trees to grow in the wild.
Even as the fires were crackling through the branches of pines, birch and spruce, the start of new tree growth was already popping. The heat from the burning trees pops open the cones on those trees, releasing seeds that have been waiting to get loose for years. Millions of those seeds were dumped on the forest floor and within less than a month, a fraction of those seeds to germinate, pop through the soil and start growing into little seedlings. Give them another 30 or 40 years, and hikers going through the area where this year’s fires have wiped out most trees, those seedlings will have grown tall enough that hikers won’t even know the area had been devastated by fires in 2007.
In fact, fire is a natural part of the forest’s regeneration system. Most forest trees need to be exposed to fire every 50 to 100 years to invigorate new growth. As we found out in Yellowstone National Park nearly 20 years ago, suppressing forest fires too long can actually be detrimental to forests. Extreme efforts to prevent forest fires there led to a huge consumption of trees when fire finally broke out.
University of Minnesota-Duluth biology professor John Pastor was quoted this week in the Star Tribune saying: “When people canoe through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) and see all these beautiful forests, every one of those forests started with a fire.”
As a rule of thumb, timber experts say that any particular chunk of ground in the forest should be touched by intense fire every 50 to 100 years.
But the power of the fire is just the first step in forest regrowth. Weather patterns in the affected area over the nest year will play a big role in how the new forests develop. A summer of drought could kill the newly released seeds and short-circuit any new growth. That could give new species of trees a chance to grow in the area. Normal rains mixed with the nutrients left on the ground from the fire could be a great booster shot to getting the seeds off to a flying start.
Other natural benefits can be seen from fires. For instance, the once-rare black-backed woodpecker is now a regular site in the BWCA with the abundance of dead trees from recent smaller fires and the 1999 wind blow down of trees. New shrubs and ground vegetation is appealing to different kinds of wildlife to snack on.
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